A Well-Deserved 59-0 Pile-On

Did you get a chance to see highlights from yesterday’s first real snow game of the 2009 NFL season? It was the surprisingly winless Tennessee Titans versus the New England Patriots in Foxboro, MA. Well, without permission from Al Gore, it nonetheless snowed on October 18th and the Patriots pounced:

I love snow games! I don’t care who’s playing and (unless the Pats are involved) I don’t care who wins. But when the score gets this lopsided some utter the words ”pile-on” and feel bad for the victims. The Titans were 13-3 last season — the best in the league. They are professionals making tens of thousands to millions of dollars per game depending on their contracts. The story behind the 59-0 isn’t Tom Brady’s best 2nd Quarter in the history of football (5 touchdowns), or the first 59-0 pouncing since the Rams beat the Falcons by the same score in 1976, it was how a professional football team gave up.

The Titans phoned it in. I don’t care how bad your team is, 59-0 is inexcusable, especially the way the Titans played. In principle, piling-on is truth: you suck, they don’t, nor are they afraid to show it. It hurts, but you’re paid professionals! If we want mamby-pamby mercy rules in high school or in some college sports, then so be it, but in the pros there’s no excuse but to play on. I’m not going to feel bad for a team of millionaires who got their butts handed to them because they were outclassed in the snow. They earned every one of their zero points and deserved the blanking they got. Professionals should not just give up like the Titans did yesterday.